Chrono Chaos
by SilverThorn-2000
Summary: An unlikely event sets a new adventure in motion.


Chrono Chaos

SilverThorn2000

Chapter 1

The town is small, uneventful. It isn't a small farming community- far from it- but it isn't on par with places such as Seattle, Los Angeles, or New York City.

There's a young man walking in this town, just outside of downtown. His name is Chris.

Remember what I said about the town being uneventful? Well, sometimes that first glance is wrong. Let's watch what happens, shall we?

* * *

It was hot. Beautiful, cloudless July that it was, it was also really, really hot. Ninety seven degrees and rising fast as the afternoon came on. Chris paid it no mind. It was summer break, no school work, no school bureaucracy, no nothing until September.

His merry thoughts were interrupted by a slightly frizzled zapping noise that managed to intrude over the music flowing from his headphones. Well, that, and his sudden use as an unexpected landing pad.

With a strangled cry, Chris crashed to the ground as a large amount of weight slammed into him from above.

"Ow! Bloody 'ell! That hurt!" Unknown voice. Female.

"Ugh...what happened..." Another female voice.

Chris muttered to himself, and started to force himself to his feet, evicting the two girls from their seated position.

"Hey! What was that for?" Chris turned and found himself eye-to-eye with a girl, around his age, maybe a little younger. She was visibly upset.

"It's for landing on me." Chris turned away again and began to walk off, when the girl gained a grip on his hair. "Hey! Ow! Leggo!"

"Not 'til you tell me where we are."

A sigh. "Kid, let him go. You won't get anything out of him like that."

"He'll tell me or I'll kick his arse so hard he'll kiss the-" A pause- "Moon. Huh. Only one moon here."

"Always been that way." Chris started walking again, pulling loose from Kid's grip.

"Say, mate, where are we?"

"Wouldn't believe me if I told you," Chris' tenor returned.

"Fine, you met anyone named Serge lately?" Kid asked after a moment.

"Nope."

"Excuse me, but...would you help us look for him?" asked the other girl.

"Well..." Chris paused, and looked at the girls. "All right. 'S not like I've got anything else to do."

"Thank you. I'm Schala Zeal...and that would be Kid. Wait a second, weren't we just..." Schala looked down at herself, then back at Kid. Kid did the same and then looked at Schala.

"Problem?" Chris asked quietly, and the girls turned to him.

"Well, you see..."

* * *

Another world, time, and place, a young boy stands on a beach next to an old man and a red-haired girl about his age.

"Okay, you're sure this is going to work?" Serge asked Belthesar for what had to be the fifty-second time that day.

"Once again, Serge, yes. You will be able to travel to other worlds, find Schala, and return here to El Nido." Belthasar wrung his hands, and Leena frowned at him.

"All right, we're trusting you." Serge muttered after a minute. He took Leena by the hand. He grasped Bethasar's Astral Amulet and stepped into the small hole between worlds.

* * *

An aside is needed here, to explain what is about to be set in motion.

Despite much evidence to the contrary, Belthasar is, in truth, very much human. As a guru he's got world(s)-class knowledge in things very few know about. And few can match his inventive genius.

And despite all of that, he's still human. Which, by any definition, means he's still fallible.

And this fallibility occasionally leads to mistakes. Such as his scheme to free Schala from the Darkness Beyond Time. There are few things more brilliant than uniting diverging timelines to free someone.

Doing so, however, tends to act like ripples on a pond. And sometimes, such ripples attract unwanted attention...

* * *

Serge felt the familiar falling feeling of traveling between worlds. _'Hang on, Kid,'_ he thought, _'I'm coming to find you.'__

* * *

_

_It splintered through and looked across the multiverse. So much to do, but where to begin?_

_

* * *

_

_Others much like it._

_The planet's spirit reached out, tentatively, and blinked again. Other universes, sister selves..._

_And cried out as, in some distant universe, that other Self was snuffed out. Reaching out with it's will, the planet reached into the depths of the darkness, and found what she was looking for._

_She couldn't directly deal with this problem, but she had a way in which she could. And she never threw away a tool..._

_On the edge of Cape Howl, Harle stirred, and opened her eyes._

* * *

"Okaaaaay..." Chris sat back on the coffee shop's leather couch and ruminated on what he'd been told. He looked between Kid and Schala for a long moment. "Let me get this straight: When you started your last journey between worlds you were the same person, but you separated because of some turbulence?"

Schala nodded, and Chris looked around.

"I've got to be dreaming this. This can't actually happen-" He glanced around, looking for something that'd confirm his statement, and sighed. "Dammit. Guess I'm not. Rei'd be here otherwise-"

"Rei?" Kid asked, arching an eyebrow. Chris waved it off. "Someone from a dream." He stood up and looked around again.

In a million universes, Chris walked off. In a million universes, Serge emerged somewhere else. In a million universes, Harle didn't find the gem. Kid and Schala didn't fall into the hole. Aisha cast the spell incorrectly. In a million other universes, the heroes failed.

In a million other universes, this was a very short story indeed.

Chris sighed, changed his mind- again- and sat back down.

"So, what now?" he asked, taking a long drink of iced latte. Schala shrugged.

"I guess we start by looking for other angelus errae-"

"Other _what_?"

"Holes 'tween worlds, ya lunkhead." Kid glowered over her juice. Chris returned the glare in equal measure, and Schala extended a hand. "All right, you two. That's enough."

"And just where do you propose to begin?" Chris finally asked after a long silence.

"I...really don't know." Schala thought for a moment.

"Fine. Let's start by going home so I can get changed into something a little more practical for adventuring." Chris rose, and turned a glare on Kid as she poked him in the arm.

"Why? You not happy with yer arms showin'?" Kid grinned, and Chris shook his head.

"Not enough pockets. Come on."

* * *

Something 'a little more practical' consisted of a t-shirt, vest, denim shorts, a backpack, and a wooden bokken thrust through the back of Chris' belt. It struck Schala as a very akward look, but Chris seemed to carry it well enough.

"All right, let's go."

The trio stepped out of the doors and was on their way.


End file.
